PARIS, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Lebanese opposition leader Walid Jumblat said Syria threatened to kill him if he refused to negotiate according to Syrian terms.
"Anything is possible in Lebanon now since they (Syrians) crossed the red line and tell us either you negotiate according to our terms or we kill you," Jumblat said in an interview with the French daily Liberation Tuesday.
The opposition held Syria and the Syrian-backed regime of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud responsible for the Feb. 14 death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a bombing in Beirut.
Jumblat said Hariri told him after meeting Syrian President Bashar Assad a few months ago, Assad threatened to "break Lebanon" if France forced him to pull out his estimated 15,000 troops.
Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, forced the Lebanese parliament to amend the constitution last September to extend Lahoud's mandate by another three years. The extension was opposed by both Jumblat and Hariri.
Jumblat also charged the Shiite Hezbollah is being used by Syria as "a pressure tool" against the opposition and to sway public opinion in Lebanon.
France and the United States passed U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 last September calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
